February2008

Dunkin Donuts just decided to start offering 99 cent espresso drinks to the masses. This is a move that is surely creating headaches for Starbucks execs. Starbucks actually closed their stores for three hours to retrain all of their baristas. Which is a move that Starbucks says is to keep the quality of their drinks better than everyone else’s, but I have a feeling that they are feeling the heat from all of these big chains adding espresso to their mix.

This year is certainly the year that Starbucks needs to reinvent themselves or they are going to lose a lot of business in the long run. Anyone who enjoys their espresso knows that it is NOT the same everywhere and that there is a science and art to creating espresso drink, but there are more people that will get their … Read More »

This is a look back at the websites of some of our favorite restaurants websites. We used the Wayback Machine and looked up as far back as we could and compared them to todays websites.

McDonalds 1997 – Now

Starbucks 2001 – Now

Burger King 1999 – Now

Applebees 2000 – Now

Chilis 1998 – Now

Hooters 1995 – Now

Waffle House 1999 – Now

Red Lobster 1996 – Now

Pizza Hut 1996 – Now

It looks like more and more restaurants are posting flat or worse same-store sales and this could be a big problem for us…the consumers. Places like McDonalds may be able to avoid charging us more money due to their huge resources and the fact that they have diversified and have locations abroad.

But, what happens to those restaurants that don’t have those resources and multiple streams of income? I know….they begin to charge more money so that they can post increases in sales to their shareholders and keep Wall Street happy.

Look at what restaurant giant Cracker Barrel is doing. Cracker Barrel, I’m sure worried about posting slackening sales bumped up the prices of their menu by about 3.2% and then posted higher sales numbers….not by generating more business, but by charging more.

This is something I can see happening at more restaurants … Read More »

Burger King posted a 4.2% same-store sales increase unlike McDonalds who posted flat same-store sales during December. I think that this could play out interestingly with my Burger War prediction.

So McDonalds execs see that Burger King and the Whopper are outperforming them and then begin to promote the Big Mac hard-core…which they need to do anyways. Honestly, doesn’t everyone laugh at the Burger King Commercials? The King commercials were hilarious and now the new Whopper Freak-Out commercials are friggen hilarious too.

What is the last good McDonalds commercial you can think of?…. Can you think of a good one. I actually cannot think of one.

You know what that means? McDonalds advertising is not effective.

Anyways, so because the execs see this trend they fire their current advertising company and hire a new edgy company and start promoting the hell out of the … Read More »